Tag: Los Rakas

Hector Mendoza is an Dominican Republic-born, Miami, FL-based DJ, electronic music, producer and artist, best known in urban sound system and bass music circles as Happy Colors, and along with El Dusty, Mendoza has been at the forefront of a swaggering and emerging bass music scene that draws from traditional and beloved sounds across Latino America, including merengue, cumbia, bachata, Caribbean moonbahtron and meshes those sounds with trap, drum ‘n’ bass, footwork and other electronic music genres. And as a result of hooking up with Diplo‘s Mad Decent crew, the Dominican Republic-born, Miami, FL-based DJ, electronic music producer and artist has seen a growing national and international reputation as he’s collaborated with the likes of renowned artists including the aforementioned El Dusty, as well as some of electronic music’s renowned artists and producers including Major Lazer, Jack U, DJ Blass, De La Ghetto, Lapiz Conciente and Los Rakas. Additionally, Mendoza has played EDC Mexico, SXSW, Life in Color and at the Sony Music Latin Grammy’s 2016 After Party.

Interestingly, this past year may arguably be Mendoza’s breakthrough year, as his collaboration with El Dusty, “Cumbia Anthem” is the first world bass music track to be nominated for a Latin Grammy — for “Best Urban/Fusion Performance.” Of course along with that, Mendoza has been pretty busy — he released his latest single “Mamaguevo” earlier this month and as you’ll hear, the Miami-based producer creates swaggering and anthemic productions consisting of chopped up vocal samples, explosive, tweeter and woofer rattling 808s, twitchy synths and electronics. And while being as equally club-banging as El Dusty’s work, Mendoza’s sound seems to push the Latin bass music sound towards a mainstream-leaning direction.